Time: 115 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence
Cast:
Rebecca Hall as Dr. Ilene Andrews
Brian Tyree Henry as Bernie Hayes
Dan Stevens as Trapper
Kaylee Hottle as Jia
Alex Ferns as Mikael
Fala Chen as Iwi Queen
Rachel House as Hampton
Director: Adam Wingard

After rewatching the past couple MonsterVerse movies, I was a bit skeptical about how Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire would turn out. I enjoyed Godzilla vs Kong, but it was easily the worst of the 4 MonsterVerse movies, and its director Adam Wingard would be helming the next film, which didn’t look that good based on the trailers. While I liked Godzilla x Kong overall, I still have a lot of issues with it.

Something pointed out in early reviews was the fact that it’s nothing like the recent Godzilla film, Godzilla Minus One, and is instead a very silly and absurd monster movie. I’m fully aware of that, and I’m not against it. However, even campy and over the top movies can be made better than this. The best thing I can say is that the Kong storyline is genuinely good. His plotline focuses on him trying to find more of his own kind, and I found it genuinely engaging. It certainly helps that they give him a lot of characterisation. Honestly, if the movie was mainly focused on him as a protagonist, I probably would’ve liked the movie more. Godzilla really didn’t appear much in Godzilla vs Kong, and while he is in Godzilla x Kong a bit more, he actually might’ve been treated worse in this. He doesn’t feel all that consequential to the movie, spending much of his screentime just powering up and fighting random titans, and only really becomes relevant to the plot right at the end. I also really don’t like his characterisation in these recent movies, he’s just angry and kind of dumb now.

I am fully aware that the human stories in Godzilla and Kong movies aren’t the strongest, but human stories are still essential to monster movies. While they weren’t great in Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island, I felt that there was some effort with those. However, in Godzilla vs Kong I noticed a level of reluctance to the treatment of the human characters, like they were only there by obligation. Unfortunately, Godzilla x Kong is very much the same case. In all fairness, at least they only have one human storyline instead of two (so it’s a little more focussed), and they only have 4 main characters this time. Still, the little touches of emotion regarding Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle’s characters almost feel added in as an obligation. The plotline is sidelined not only by the monsters, but also the storyline’s main intended function: the worldbuilding and exposition. The worldbuilding initially seemed interesting, and the movie definitely explores more of the universe, but the clunky exposition just over explains everything. It is genuinely frustrating hearing long stretches of characters just explaining with dull dialogue.

The stakes are only large because people say that the stakes are large, you certainly don’t feel them. Characters make a big deal about how the new main villain is dangerous and could be a real problem, and you just don’t buy it. Though I guess having sequences of Godzilla just casually walking through destroying bridges with no one reacting to it really didn’t help much. Godzilla vs Kong had a notable increase in the amount of attempted jokes and Godzilla x Kong doubled down on that, unfortunate since none of the humour works. The only actual funny moments were to be found in some of the absurd fighting sequences. I will say that for what it’s worth, the movie does pick up in the second half (as does the initially poor pacing), as it gets into the heavier Kong focus and moves into its climax with some over the top action and fight sequences. I got some enjoyment from those scenes, even when they don’t reach the heights of the first three MonsterVerse movies. I have criticism regarding the lack of scale and weight relating to these monster fights, especially seeing as how the movies used to have battles between Godzilla and powerful titans that actually felt grand. But I guess there is something rather amusing about watching the world’s angriest monkeys and lizards tussling as if they are in a bar fight, and performing body slams and suplexes on each other.

The actors weren’t dealt the best hand with the material they were given, though I guess with the limited cast, they had a bit more to do here. Rebecca Hall and Kaylee Hottle reprise their roles from Godzilla vs Kong, and in all fairness, they have a fine enough foundation for an emotional core, just a shame then that movie really doesn’t spend enough time with them for it to feel genuine. Brian Tyree Henry also returns as his podcaster character from Godzilla vs Kong, and while I like him as an actor, once again he’s more distracting and annoying than funny as the comic relief (not helped by his increased screentime). However, this is definitely more on the writing than him. Dan Stevens is alright, at the very least, he knows what kind of movie he’s in.

Adam Wingard’s direction is again a bit of a mixed bag. The visuals of Godzilla vs Kong were a bit of a downgrade compared to the MonsterVerse movies that came before, but somehow Godzilla x Kong manages to look so much worse, a lot of it looks downright bad. I think it’s largely because of how the vast majority of the movie doesn’t take place on the surface on Earth and instead more in the Hollow Earth. As a result, it relies on some abstract and fake looking backdrops that never feel real, even the CGI feels like a downgrade from the past movies. Godzilla vs Kong was the point in the franchise where I noticed a real loss in the sense of scale and once again, Godzilla x Kong is even worse in that regard. A lot of it can be blamed on the fact that so much of the movie takes place in the Hollow Earth, reducing the size of these monsters and making them feel small and insignificant. That said, even the scenes on the surface of Earth weren’t all that much better. There are only a few shots of humans nearby during those scenes of monsters, and any sense of scale and grandeur is just gone. The action sequences are entertaining at least, but I wouldn’t say that they were well made. I was actually more of a fan of the fights involving monkeys, less so with the action relating to Godzilla; I don’t like how fast he moves now, and his effects aren’t that great compared to Kong’s. It is actually kind of sad not feeling anything when watching Godzilla battle a powerful titan. The fight scenes aren’t great, and for all the build up feel rather underwhelming. As said before though, the scrappiness, absurdity and wrestler-esque parts make them enjoyable to watch. Junkie XL has composed some very effective and great scores in the past, but his work for this movie just wasn’t very good. It’s very generic blockbuster stuff, providing loud and forgettable background noises and nothing else.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a very mixed bag. It’s surprisingly dull and empty at times, over-reliant on exposition, and has a predictably lacklustre human story. However, it picks up in the second half, the Kong storyline is good, and the absurd action is entertaining. If you had issues with Godzilla vs Kong you’ll probably have issues with this one too. As for me, I put them on similar levels with each other; some of their issues are similar, some of them are different. While I do like Adam Wingard as a director, I am very doubtful for the future of MonsterVerse if he’s now the sole director of the franchise.